


Five Places Rhaenys Targaryen Never Ended Up

by clutzycricket



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: 5 Things, Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 04:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12028179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clutzycricket/pseuds/clutzycricket
Summary: Rhaenys of Themyscira, Nell of Dorne, Renee Rhodes, Sophia Potter, Rhaenys Tully...Five names and guises never worn by a princess born amid the mists and seaspray of Dragonstone...





	Five Places Rhaenys Targaryen Never Ended Up

i.) rhaenys of themyscira

It was easy to pretend that she had known nothing but her many mother-sisters, nothing but the sands and swords of her home.

But taking the easy way was to deny the truth, and she would not shame her family so.

Io had found her, small and bleeding, near Hestia’s temple, wrapped in a bedsheet and trying to be silent.

(The cat, though, had yowled loud enough to raise the dead. There was something peculiar about that cat, Io always said.)

Io, taller than anyone, even the Princess, and wider still across the shoulders, had picked the girl up as if she was made of glass and carried her to Epione.

The girl had lived, despite the blood she had lost and the wounds she had taken.

(Faruka claimed it showed strength, Menalippe that she was favored by the gods. Epione and Althea claimed it good healing work. The Queen merely sighed with a little smile she had frequently worn when the Princess was a child, and not… well, the  _Princess,_  and everyone had argued in a similar way.)

When she woke, she watched them all with eyes as round as shields, and told them what she remembered of the men with swords, and her mother’s screams.

She stayed with them, and her nights ended with fewer screams, after a while.

(It was an affliction they were familiar with, if not in a child so young.)

She took to trailing behind Magala, which was a bit strange, but the sorceress was patient. She also haunted Althea, all smoky curls and steady hands in the healer’s rooms. She stayed with Io, though, in a spare room over the forge, where she was quiet and mended things, save for the moments she sang.

(Io chased the musicians away, because if Althea did it, then there would be no peace.)

So the girl had grown, and none had minded when she hid when Steve Trevor arrived, and the contest came. She was still very young- eight, at most.

Ten years later, the barriers… didn’t come down, not properly, but someone (Athena, Menalippe claimed) made it permeable.

There were, the Princess said thoughtfully, other girls of a similar age, working to make the world a better place, and that Rhaenys might benefit from learning from them.

All the Amazons were surprised when their solemn little shadow looked at her, bit her lip, and said, “That might be a good idea.”

ii.) Nell of Dorne (By Way of Camelot)

Someone had pinched his ear. Someone smaller than him, with non-knightly hands. Calloused, though.

He managed to twist enough to see a mass of black curls and scars peeping from Nell’s sleeve. Morgana’s pet harper was even younger than him, if not by much, a Dornish girl who made melodies clever enough that even Arthur paid attention. In return she was ferociously loyal to Morgana. (Also Gwen.)

“What did I do now?” Merlin asked. She dragged him to a storeroom, not letting go of his ear.

“You drugged Morgana,” she accused, jamming a finger in his face. 

He blinked, trying to figure out what she knew. “The sleeping draught? Technically, that was Gaius.”

“Sleeping drought? Stranger wept, whatever you were doing is driving her mad,” the harper said. “I gave her lavender and poppy tea instead the last two nights, and it seems to have fixed it, but if you try it again, I will slice you neck to navel.”

Merlin gulped. Nell was nice enough, mostly. Right up until you… threatened her friends. Then she seemed to think she was a terrifying giant dragon.

And what did he go and do.

“I- I- It was supposed to keep her calm,” he said finally. “From dreaming.”

Nell huffed. “Oh, this is about that seven-damned ban. I would love to take her to… not Asshai, that would be horrible for her, but perhaps Braavos?”

He blinked. How did she?

“There was a magical fire in her room. When she was having nightmares,” she said, dryly. “Oddly, despite our friendship, I seem to lack that willful blindness everyone else seems to cultivate.”

“There may be people… closer,” he tried, wondering how much to hint. She scowled. 

“Oh, yes, the paranoid King prone to lashing out and refusing to admit he is wrong will gladly allow his niece to live with… Merlin, are you listening to yourself?” she asked. “That is thoughtless on par with the Silver Prince himself.”

“Who?” Merlin asked, tilting his head.

“It would be best to ask me again when the Dornish sour comes in,” she said, pinching her nose. “I know a few tricks that may help her, for now.” She gave a bitter grin before sweeping a finger across the scar marring her cheek. “I know something of bad dreams.”

Somehow, that translated to shooting a sorceress with a crossbow, nearly getting herself banished, and extracting a promise to help her if she needed it. Morgana did stop setting things on fire accidentally, though.

(Which was when the Lannister delegation arrived, and it turned out little Nell was actually Princess Rhaenys and had a price on her head. Also, that her brother had an army, though Nell had apparently not known that. He’d sent her to Gwaine, who agreed to keep her safe and probably needed to be kept on his toes. He didn’t get why Morgana kept laughing.)

iii.) Renee Rhodes

“Sorry, no, you fucked up, you don’t get our mini-Rhodey,” Tony said, and Auntie Pepper was nodding. Her dad looked furious and like it was a really, really good thing that he was mostly a responsible adult who was not in his suit right now. Spidey was at her shoulder, which was… well, he was younger than her, but he could also bench press a car.

Thor, weirdly, was even glaring at them. Though given Renee’s burn-proofing and the bit where he was GOD OF THUNDER, she was willing to give that a pass until she and Friday could talk it over privately later.

“Her father-” the man- who was apparently her bio uncle, and she could see it, actually, they had the same nose and hair and way of flattening their mouths when they got mad.

“Is right here,” Rhodey said. “I raised her, was there when Renee was sick, taught her to ride a bike and drive a car, had her educated, and did a lot more for her than a man who you said left her and her brother for some teenager.”

“I want to teach her to fly a suit,” Tony said, and that was why he was her favorite not-allowed-to-call-him-uncle. “Also, I taught her to shoot.”

“I remember yelling at you for that,” Dad agreed. “You also taught her basic coding, which is… better. Much better.”

“Could I learn to shoot?” Spidey asked.

“Tony had me sit though so many lessons before I held the gun,” she whispered. “So many.” Also, it had been… just post cave-escape. And Obie’s black-hat reveal, and apparently he’d gone a little overprotective vis-a-vis his goddaughter. 

“Is Tywin Lannister among the dead?” Thor asked, and Renee went still at the look on her bio-uncle’s face.

“Not yet,” her bio-uncle said.

“Then Princess Renee is in grave danger going there,” Thor said, simply. “Until Lannister and his puppets are dead.”

“Well,” Spidey said, “at least we aren’t taking over this planet?”

“No planets until she’s thirty,” Tony said.

“Co-parenting,” Renee hissed at Spidey, who choked.

Seriously, she occasionally wondered if her dad and Uncle Tony were more than soft-bros, but Auntie Pepper had staying power. Also, was awesome.

Adorable ruthless dorks in love and all that.

Also, the Rescue armor was much, much less in scope then a  _planet_. Between that an Spidey, twenty-one for solo piloting should work.

iv. Sophia Potter

“Your friend is deeply annoying,” said a voice from behind a stack of books.

James laughed. “How did you find Sirius annoying now?”

“You know, that shouldn’t be the first thing that pops in your head,” his sister said, poking her head out from around the books. “You have more than one friend, you know. If your mind just… leaps to Sirius being the problem, then clearly you agree that there is one.”

“Sophia,” he said, “I think the Prewett twins set up bets on you and Sirius fighting.”

She sighed. “He’s planning on dragging me to Hogsmeade tomorrow.”

“You like arguing with Sirius,” James pointed out. “You say I’m too nice, Remus and Peter get too upset, and…”

“You give me sad looks if I argue with Lily,” Sophia agreed. “Sirius said that I’m working myself too hard, and I’ll end up locked in some tower if I keep it up.”

James couldn’t argue- Lily and Marlene had frogmarched her to lunch, Sirius had badgered her to dinner last night, and he was getting her to dinner now. Remus agreed to coax her to go upstairs, at least, later. There were dark circles under her eyes, and he wondered if she’d crack and ask for Dreamless Sleep soon, or if she’d writing in her carefully annotated and encoded notebook.

(Having a Seer for a near-twin was worrying, a lot. Especially when she wasn’t a normal seer, but had dreams like tea-leaves and tarot cards with occasional flashes of events.)

“He’s worried about you,” James admitted. “Soph, we all are.”

“I’m more worried about you,” she admitted, biting her lip. “Promise me…” she sighed. “Gah, I don’t even know exactly what to ask you to promise.”

“I’ll be careful?” he tried.

She shot him a deeply skeptical, deeply hurtful look. It would have been entirely undeserved… if she hadn’t been there when he attempted a Wronski Feint when he was nine. Or through the Animagus transformation. Or when he’d gotten in a duel with Mulciber and Avery and their friends. Or…

Okay, maybe a little deserved.

“There will come a choice,” she said, slightly dreamily. “And you’ll have to choose between blunt loyalty and sheer cleverness.”

“Can you see what I should choose?” he asked, a shiver down his spine. For a second, he thought he smelled the sea, mixing with the smoke from the fires.

“Just the choice,” she said, after a long moment. “There is always just the choice.”

v. rhaenys tully, lady of riverrun

Aegon did not understand, when she smiled as Father told her who she would wed.

_The princess, no, not that one, the Dornish one,_ as if they meant to say the lesser one, though Rhaenys was Father’s favorite, though she was cleverer than Aegon with people, and better at sums to boot, and was much more practical than Daenerys. As if Father had not told her that he would have made her Princess of Dragonstone if he could, that she would have been an excellent queen, but the only way that would have worked would have been over the corpses of Aegon, Viserys, and Daenerys. And even then, she’d probably find herself tied to the Baratheons.

Rhaenys would not have wanted to be Queen- she liked the work, trying to find solutions, but she did not enjoy being around presses of people, preferring the quiet. Her cousins had teased her for it, once, but they stopped soon enough when they realized that she was still good at practical things.

(Occasionally those practical things were jokes.)

But for Aegon to die? No, never. That couldn’t happen.

She watched as her parents paraded young unmarried lords and ladies for her brother and herself. (Viserys was set to wed Shyra Hall, the cool, steady lady of Haystack Hall, who had rendered him completely undignified. It was quite entertaining. Daenerys was still uncertain, but she suspected if her aunt met a pretty young lord the King and Queen would listen. Baelor Brightsmile had a son about Rhaenys’ age, after all.)

Lord Brandon Stark’s son was nice enough, but closer to Dany’s age, and Aegon was clearly fascinated with his sister. Who seemed… sweet? Up until you realized how terribly capable she was of remembering things about people, and after a few years with Mother, the naivete would mellow into sincerity. 

(Also, the boy was clearly smitten with Lady Jeyne Westerling, who did need a good husband and wouldn’t find the North too much of a challenge.)

There had been others, including a rather… memorable one from the Tyrells, and Rhaenys had slipped off into the garden for a moment to try and calm herself. (Aegon had found a lady who was acceptable, and Rhaenys could perhaps live in Sunspear with Arianne and keep the accounts.)

“Hullo?” came a voice. “Is anyone here?”

She froze.

“I got turned around a bit,” he said, sounding embarrassed. “I just need to get back inside.”

Blue and red, with fish, she thought. Plus the resemblance to Lady Catelyn and her daughter, therefore, Lord Edmure Tully, heir to Riverrun. 

“The roses have overgrown a bit from that angle,” she called. “It hides the door.”

“I could make a jape about roses and entrances,” Lord Edmure said, warmly, “but it seems a bit rude.” 

“As Lady Olenna was terribly rude about my mother’s health,” Rhaenys started, before biting off her words. She did like Lord Willas, and more to the point, Allyria deeply liked Lord Willas, and she would not make her friend’s life harder. 

“Ah, not terribly tactful, that woman,” Lord Edmure said, coming close enough. Could he see her? She wasn’t quite sure- the garden had been designed with Lady Shiera in mind, and tended to play tricks on the eye. “Made a similar comment about my father.”

“I am sorry to hear that, my lord,” Rhaenys said. “My brother and I begged tales of the Ninepenny Kings off your father and uncle when last they were in the city, and they were kind to two ill-behaved children.”

“Well, he had three,” Lord Edmure shrugged. “Maybe not Cat, but Lysa and I. Plus Petyr.” He rounded the corner, and his eyes widened. “And I was supposed to say the princess could never be ill-behaved, wasn’t I?”

She laughed while he went red as his tunic. “Oh, my lord, my mother would call you a wretched liar if you did.” She waved toward the garden entrance. “There is a hallway there, if you would like to make a discreet re-entry?”

“Discreet would be good,” he said, nodding a bit. “Shall I see you at the feast?”

“I will be delighted,” she said, surprised that she was being truthful in that answer.

Though she still had to brave the crowds, at least she knew there was another friendly face. 


End file.
